Some time has passed since you made your New Year’s resolutions, and perhaps your renewed enthusiasm for and commitment to your current church job has begun to wane. Maybe you’re starting to feel like it’s time to consider making a change and pursuing ministry opportunities elsewhere.
Before you take concrete steps in that direction, you should ask yourself the following three questions.
Take some time to sit and think about what is truly the impetus behind this desire to find a new church to serve. Is it that you’ve simply hit a ceiling in your professional development at your current church? Perhaps it’s a difficult working relationship, a mismatch in theology or approach to ministry, or an ill fit between the church community and your family.
Whatever the reason or reasons, you need to identify it or them before you do anything else. You may discover that the issues driving you to think about a change can be resolved and allow you stay where you are. And if they can’t be resolved, identifying those issues will help you figure out where you might want to go next.
While it’s easy to get caught up in the more challenging aspects of your current job, there are reasons that you are still in that role. Some of them are practical: you need a job to provide for yourself and your family, or you don’t want to uproot your kids in the middle of a school year. But if you look closely, you will see there are other reasons.
Perhaps your ministry is bearing fruit, even in the midst of frustrations. Or this role is helping you grow spiritually, personally, and professionally by stretching you beyond your natural giftings. If you have hit a ceiling where you are, you might be learning to be more patient and to trust God when you just feel stuck. Maybe God has called you to this specific role in this setting for reasons you can’t see, and he hasn’t yet released you.
It’s easy to daydream about leaving your current church job, but have you thought about what you want your next step to be? Where do you want to go from here? And have you considered whether that goal is realistic? Are you simply idealizing whatever is next? Remember, no job is perfect because you will always be working with people (and they with you). You could potentially face the exact same dynamics that are causing you to question your current role in the next one if you don’t have realistic expectations.
Success is not about getting the next church role, or even resolving any issues in your current one; rather, success is clarity, and asking yourself these questions can help you achieve that.
What are other questions you should ask when considering a church job transition?